MacGregor, Rob Roy

Full Name: Robert MacGregor

Nickname/Alias: Rob Roy

Achievements:  Scottish Highland outlaw

Born: Baptised March 7, 1671; Buchanan, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

Died: December 28, 1734; Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland (Aged 63)

Field & Discipline: Politics; Outlaw

Language: English; Gaelic

Father: Donald Glas MacGregor

Mother: Margaret Campbell

Siblings: Duncan; John; Margaret

Spouse: Mary MacGregor

Children: James; Coll; Duncan; Ronald; Robin

Education: Unknown

Life & Times:

Robert's uncle, Patrick Roy MacGregor, had fought for the King under [family linked to] James Graham, Marquis of Montrose*  during the English Civil War,  and had been promised restitution of the Gregor lands, but this promise was voided when Montrose  was executed.

At the end of the Civil War,  and with restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the law outlawing the Clan Gregor was changed,  but the new king,  [influenced by] Charles II*  failed in his promise to return their lands.  Among the sixty principal Highland families only Clan Gregor had no estates, a fact which influenced all Robert's subsequent actions.

When he was seventeen, peace in Scotland was broken when the Catholic James II succeeded to the throne of England.  Protestants in Scotland supported the idea that the Protestant Dutchman,  William of Orange, should depose James, but the Gregors chose to support the monarchy,  as their ancestors had done when the 1^st Marquis of Montrose had fought for Charles I.

William of Orange landed in England, and James II fled the country, giving John

Graham, Viscount Dundee, the task of raising the Scottish clans in his support.  In May 1689, two weeks before William's coronation in London, Robert's father, Donald Glas, was called to lead the Gregor clan to arms against James.

At the first battle, at Killiecrankie, the Highlanders lost not only their leader, but also the support of other great chieftains.  Both Donald and Robert survived the battle, but when they returned home for the winter season, Donald was arrested for cattle stealing.

Over the next two years Robert struggled to support the family through the hardship of severe winter weather.  He was a successful cattle raider,  but conditions were extremely harsh and the Gregor’s  barely survived,  at subsistence level.

In 1695, he was caught raiding and thrown into prison in Glasgow, but managed to escape with the aid of his guards.  Between 1696 and 1699, there was a succession of  bad harvests, bad weather conditions and outbreaks of the cattle disease, murrain. Many Highlanders emigrated.   Others invested their money in [didn’t invest with] Paterson's* trading scheme,  but Robert,  acting chieftain due to his father's poor health, decided it was too risky a venture.

The writer [written about by] Daniel Defoe* was employed in 1706 as a secret agent for the English, who wanted the Act of Union of Scotland and England passed by the Scottish Parliament.  Even when the act got a majority vote in 1707, most Scots were against the Union.  There was outrage that the people had not been allowed to vote and that the measure had been approved in Parliament by people like [borrowed from] James Graham, Duke of Montrose*, the Duke of Argyll and others)  who were said to have been heavily bribed.

Between 1708 and 1711 Robert prospered, but one deal was to destroy his prosperity. He borrowed a large sum of money from Montrose, to buy cows and collect the herds for fattening in the Lowlands.  Robert sent MacDonald to bring in the stock and gave him the bills of exchange, which MacDonald then ran away with.

Robert couldn't find MacDonald,  and Montrose claimed Craigrostan (Robert’s home) in re-payment.  By 1712, Robert was ruined and, in February 1713, his wife and four sons were evicted,  their home of twenty years destroyed, Robert was outlawed,  and all his lands and goods were confiscated.

As an outlaw again, Robert could no longer trade legitimately but his clan responsibilities remained.  He turned to rustling cattle, confiscating grain,  and demanding protection money.

He then became involved in the 1715 uprising, when the Jacobites tried to put a Stuart on the British throne.  After the attempt failed, no more penalties were imposed on  Robert and he negotiated with Argyll for his protection.

Robert, by now  known popularly as Rob Roy, rebuilt his old house and then raised a force of two hundred men who roamed freely over Montrose land, stealing cattle, raiding granaries and kidnapping hostages for blackmail, until Montrose returned from England and burned down Rob Roy's house. 

Rob Roy withdrew to an isolated glen, captured one of Montrose's rent collectors and demanded a ransom. The following year, the Duke of Argyll persuaded Rob Roy to meet Montrose on neutral ground and they made peace with each other.  He petitioned to have his status as an outlaw revoked in 1725, and this was granted in 1726.

In 1730, he became a Roman Catholic and died four years later.  In 1723, Daniel Defoe published "Highland Rogue", a fictional tale of Rob Roy's exploits. 

His exploits were fictionalised in [written about by] Sir Walter Scott's* novel "Rob Roy" and he was mentioned in poems by [written about by] Wordsworth*.

Extra Connections:  Spied for [spied for] Townshend*

Assessment: Rob Roy was a legendary figure in his own lifetime. 

Oneliner: Rob Roy MacGregor, famous Scottish outlaw

Bibliography:

• Murray, WH,  Rob Roy MacGregor, His Life and Times, Canongate, Edinburgh, 1995.